Porous Membrane Reactors for Liquid-Phase Heterogeneous Catalysis

Reaction and separation are the core of chemical and petrochemical production processes. The problems of resource and energy waste and environmental pollution caused by the low efficiency of reaction and separation have become increasingly prominent and have been the bottlenecks, with regard to sustainable development of the industry. The development of membrane reactor technology to achieve efficient conversion and separation has become an important research direction. In this Review, porous membrane reactors are divided into three types: contactor, distributor, and extractor types, based on the function of the membrane. The latest research progress of our group in liquid-phase catalytic reactions and the research status in this field are reviewed. For the contactor-type membrane reactor, the design and preparation of the catalytic membrane are discussed from three aspects: membrane configuration, preparation method, and membrane surface modification. For the distributor-type membrane reactor, the focus is on the influences of the membrane microstructure and operating parameters on the droplet/bubble formation and mass transfer, as well as the application of distributor-type membrane reactors. For the extractor-type membrane reactor, after the configuration of the membrane reactor is introduced, the research progress of extractor-type membrane reactors for liquid-phase catalytic reactions is discussed from two aspects: the synergistic control of the catalysis and membrane separation processes, and the mechanism and control of membrane fouling. The industrialization of extractor-type membrane reactors is described. Finally, the future challenges and development directions of porous membrane reactors applied to liquid-phase catalytic reactions are discussed.